I was surprised how good my body felt waking up this morning – we didn’t do much in Rajalaxmi’s class last night, but what we did do was deceptively powerful. We headed off for Women’s class on a very warm and close morning – I think the temperature is beginning to creep up as we get closer to March. I have completely banned Jenny from talking about leaving and how close it is etc as I want to enjoy every minute and be fully present, not half way home already!We sat in the main practice room speculating as usual – Geetaji had been sighted last night in the office – a step was put down which made Sunita the most likely candidate and in came ……. Raya! We did a double-take as his usually generous locks and beard had been barbered off into a close cut crop and he was clean-shaven like a newly shorn sheep! This was all most unexpected – I’ve never heard or witnessed the Women’s class being taught by a man, although Guruji was often present and contributing to the learning when Abhi or Geetaji was teaching.Raya’s teaching focusses a lot on refining the actions in the poses, not to overdo and distort the body. He gave lots of parodies of poses that he sees in the practice hall – monstrously puffed chests, or tense diaphragms and eyes popping out of the head. He’s not at all a fan of those who come here to primp and preen and show off their advanced poses. We were encouraged to let the pendulum swing back a little the other way – he said that it is necessary to become rajasic (powerful) to move on from a state of tamas (inertia) but you can’t go straight from rajas to sattva (quality of serenity)- you have to take a little swing back towards tamas. He encouraged us not to over exert but to find the ‘texture’ of the pose, each movement in the body balanced by a counter movement – so the grounding of the shins in ustrasana to lift the back chest up, or as we came up into purvottonasana the lower pelvic moving towards the stage as the chest rolls towards the window. It was good to be given a reminder to work in this way and I found that my poses were more sustainable and the breath was better able to flow.His sequence (link to full sequence below) began with dandasana, onto many repeats of purvottonasana, ustrasana, dhanurasana and urdhva dhanurasana, finishing with chatushpadasana into setu bandha – I’ve never done such regular practice of chatushpadasana as I’m getting this month at the institute. A lot of the time the teachers are getting carried away during the class with their discourse and then there is no time for the inversions proper. With all this practice of chatushpadasana, who knows I may make friends with it and actually come to like it.
A real life Aladdin’s Cave!
In the afternoon Jenny and I headed to Laxmi Road for shopping and had a hot and busy, but very successful trip. There are certain things I save up to get while I am in
India as they are so much cheaper than back home. Kitchen stuff is great here and the market is full of it. I managed to find the exact stainless steel pressure cooker I wanted, which is about £60 back home for a mere £15. I love the printed cotton bed sheets that they use in India which I’ve never seen used back in UK and I managed to find the very same one as I have on my bed in my apartment. Once we were all done in we went to the Agatya food hall for a lassi and coconut uttapa. It was a relief to get back to the apartment and I finished the day with a restorative session of inversions to make up for what we missed in class this morning.
17th February – Women’s Class – Raya
Dandasana – showed 3 ways of doing 1) Rotating the shoulders back so much that you reveal the chest, but nothing in the chest has actually changed. 2) Not rotating the shoulders at all and puffing the chest up and out. 3) Rotating of shoulders and lift of chest as an integrated action, working together.
The hands had to go slightly back and the HEEL of the hand had to press. If the heel of the hands was not pressing he gave permission to take a folded bit of sticky or similar to press into. We had to come slightly to the front of the buttock bone and chest had to lift to an optimum position for the breath. Listen to the breath to know to where you should lift the chest – no point in having a monstrously puffed chest and the breathing restricted.
Also talked about the toes and metatarsels – they should not be hard – when he sees a row of hard toes standing up on stalks, it makes him think about dogs about to fight baring their teeth.
Purvottonasna – mainly with bent legs – we did many times and covered many points. Some that I remember:
Not to over rotate the elbows, he pointed out many Guruji pictures eg. Bhujangasana 2, ustrasana, dhanurasana – in none of them does Guruji rotate so much that you can see the inner elbow. YES the shoulders are rolling back but he is not overdoing, the elbows remain in a natural position. We learnt this in Dandasana fingers interlocked behind and then took it into purvottonasana.
Learning to go up with softness and refinement, finding a pose which you can be in where the correct actions are there but not over actions. As you go up the buttock flesh moving away from the waist and the chest lifting up from the back body and moving towards the window side (head side) behind – so the abdomen is long – do not puff the abdomen. Move the lower pelvic towards the feet to keep the abdomen soft.
We looked at how legs too close to the body caused wrong tension on the hamstrings. We investigated how far we go towards straight legs without losing the correct actions. Do not be afraid to work in the intermediary stages of poses. What is the point of completing the pose if everything is lost?
Ustrasana – legs have to be grounded in order for chest to go up. Coming up from sitting on the feet the’lazy’way – almost a hydraulic lift. Ground the front ankle and shin as you come up, like purvottanasana already scooping the buttock forward as you lift not as a separate action. The actions should be done in such a way that the diaphragm remains soft – Raya showed lots of parodies of poses with tense diaphragm, or puffed chest with none of the refinements. Also said when he sees students throwing the head back incorrectly with the dead weight on the neck makes him think of an execution with the head on the block and he’s tempted to complete what has been started.CHOP.
He gave the visualisation of a bow, either a big bow – as the hands reach for the feet or a small bow with the hands drawing the buttock flesh down. Hands should press the feet – how much did you press the hands in purvottonasana? And how much are you pressing the feet in ustrasana? You have to PRESS the feet with the hands.
Dhanurasana – the 3 diaphragms spread. An even lift. Lift your eyes to encourage the chest lift. Lift the upper thighs.
Urdhva Dhanurasana – Pausing on the head to draw the elbows in level, and in towards the shoulders, legs same have to be rooted, top buttock away from the waist, but thighs drawing up into the sockets, almost a circular action.
Chatushpadasana (don’t over rotate the elbows and shoulders) x 6 and then setu bandha hands into back chest.
General points – Guruji emphasised the poses are bout sthira and sukham – stability and comfort not about flexibility.
Once you’ve understood the principles they should carry through all the poses – you shouldn’t need to have them repeated every step of the way.
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